‘Utis.’
The goddess Kore of Pluton reminisced about the moment she gazed into his soul.
The entire field of vision was filled with a blue light. It was so bright it felt blinding.
Though it’s expressed as reading the color of the soul, the holy power Kore used was not just to see the colors of the soul.
It could discern whether one had accumulated bad karma or good deeds, determining the path of life one had lived.
To put it metaphorically, the soul seen through the holy power resembled a tapestry embroidered. Some patterns gleamed like gold, but at times, murky dark shades would also show.
However, Utis’s soul had none of those aspects. No, it didn’t show up at all.
That piercing blue radiance—it was utterly incomprehensible what kind of life journey that soul had traversed. It was strange.
As the goddess of the Pluton cult, Kore’s divine power was the pinnacle in both scale and proficiency. If adequately prepared, she could even discern the soul of a demigod who had wandered the ancient world.
Kore had only once been unable to properly view the color of the soul, apart from Utis; that was the Pope.
The immense divine power enveloping the Pope distorts the holy power. It’s like trying to gauge a figure through a distorted kaleidoscope.
One time, the Pope had drawn back the veil and shown his soul, but Kore didn’t trust the colors she saw then.
She was convinced that someone of the Pope’s caliber could show only the parts of his soul he wished to display.
‘Is Utis also of a similar class as the Pope?’
A person with such overwhelming divine power that it distorts the image reflected in the holy power. But wasn’t the flash in a completely different direction than when she tried to view the Pope’s soul?
Deep in thought about Utis’s true nature, Kore decided to use this exploration of the Great Temple as a touchstone to gauge his inner self.
Lead to the Great Temple, as before, was Demus from the Enyalius cult.
‘If Demus, who leads the assault team, is hiding ahead… No, I think he saw me.’
Though she wasn’t entirely sure, during the previous meeting, Utis displayed behavior suggesting he had noticed her presence. Much like Utis, the Priest Hyacinth of Phoibos could also recognize Kore’s presence through his clairvoyance, so it wasn’t impossible.
‘Hyacinth also had to activate the holy power to see me. It doesn’t seem like Utis used his divine power during the meeting. Was it the power activated by the Phoibos relic he possesses? Or has he been in a state of activating the holy power since attending the Divine Cult meeting?’
Putting aside the plan to surveil Utis among the followers of Enyalius, Kore resolved to track him within the Great Temple itself.
As the goddess of Pluton, Kore had the holy power to sense the people inside the Pluton Temple. Not only could she distinguish whether they were followers of Pluton, but she could also identify individuals through the extraordinary ability field felt by each human.
‘If I attune to the symbol of the Great Temple, the accuracy would increase…’
In ancient times, when the cult flourished, there were holy artifacts at the temple that functioned like the Mage Tower Core. They were typically established in the form of symbols representing the god they worshipped, hence referred to as symbols.
The symbol wielded a role akin to a crown. If the rightful heir donned it, suitable powers would be bestowed.
If Kore empathized with the symbol of the Great Temple, she’d be able to use the inscribed defensive holy power anywhere in the temple with a mere gesture.
The divine power for detecting outsiders would also be unleashed with a different level of power. Not only could she sense the existence of outsiders, but she could also clearly identify each item located within the temple—like knowing there’s a relic of Glaucus in that room, and another relic of Elimon in another.
However, it is said the symbol of the Great Temple was destroyed at the hands of the Mage King. Even if she sought its remnants, they would likely be sealed outside of reality like the Great Temple itself.
Kore tidied up the thoughts stemming from the memories of the past. The future to come was far more important than memories of ages gone by.
Among the extraordinary ability fields sensed through the holy power, there was an unusually unfamiliar presence; it must be Utis.
By moving along his blind spots, she planned to observe what kind of actions he would take.
‘At first, Utis and the Enyalius group should be in similar positions.’
Demus would probably be asking Utis to find the Enyalius relic. No matter how impressive his prophetic abilities were, there would be limitations.
If Utis was hiding another purpose he needed to fulfill within the Great Temple, he likely wouldn’t want to fulfill Demus’s request. After all, prophecies don’t come for free no matter how skilled the prophet is.
But if he readily heeded Demus’s request, it was highly likely there was no ulterior motive other than “to prepare for the upcoming Mage King and fight against the Ten Towers,” just as Utis claimed.
If it were true that Utis was a trustworthy person working for the divine cult…
‘He might become the Pope’s rival.’
*
Kore felt an indescribable emotion.
She didn’t quite understand what to call this feeling. Her inner self was filled with resigned acceptance and worry due to the long-accumulated memories of her predecessors.
In reality, the emotion Kore was feeling now was irritation.
It could very well be more accurately termed as being pissed off.
Kore didn’t witness Utis secretly betraying the Divine Cult. To put it more accurately, she hadn’t managed to.
Simply put,
Utis was too fast.
Kore ran hurriedly toward Utis. As soon as she sensed he was distancing himself from the priests of Enyalius, she ran even more desperately.
But the priests, including Demus, were acting strangely.
If Utis had rejected Demus’s request and gone his own way, they would have dispersed to search for their own cult’s relics or, giving up, explored each room as initially planned, collecting all visible relics regardless of their affiliated cult.
But weren’t they lingering in one room consistently?
As she was on her way toward Utis, it wouldn’t take much time to check in briefly.
‘…?’
Surprisingly, the room where Demus was located was filled with relics from Enyalius. The priests under Demus were organizing the relics systematically and preparing to transport them outside.
‘Did they find it right after entering the Great Temple?’
How accurate could the prophecies be for that to happen?
Kore wanted to suppress her curiosity and resume tracking Utis. However, she no longer sensed his extraordinary ability field.
‘Huh?’
Avoiding the sensation of disbelief, she expanded her range. As the other factions of the Divine Cult slowly explored the ground floor,
Utis was advancing deeper into the underground, all alone.
Kore grit her teeth and started to run.
However, she couldn’t catch up to Utis. The path he moved was not linear; it felt like he was occasionally popping in and out of rooms.
To know what he did inside a room, she’d have to take a peek inside at least once.
What happened next was truly strange.
Every room Utis entered was filled with relics. However, if he took treasures from those rooms, the expected empty spaces usually seen would not show.
This was, of course, the result of Utis having only selected small-sized relics considering their performance against volume. But Kore, having no time to thoroughly check the rooms she entered, did not manage to perceive this correctly.
Whenever she opened a door, she could sense that the relics from the old times welcomed her warmly, and a thought began to swirl in Kore’s mind.
‘Right now…’
Is he toying with me, knowing I’m tracking him?
No, that can’t be it.
Kore tried to forcibly push down her bubbling irritation and rationalize the situation. Utis seemed to be searching for something, and he was repeatedly leaving without touching anything because that ‘something’ had no value beyond it.
Depending on the identity of what Utis was looking for, he might become a threat to the Divine Cult.
The Pope’s choice wasn’t the best, but it also wasn’t the worst. To put it simply, the lesser of two evils. If Utis turned out to be a more significant threat to the cult’s identity than the Pope, Kore would have an obligation to expose him.
She once again searched for Utis’s tracks.
He had ceased moving.
However, something was moving toward Utis. Analyzing the wave of the extraordinary ability field, it wasn’t the priests wielding divine power.
It was much closer to a mage.
Regardless of how a mage got in after just being released from the seal of the Great Temple, the question arose of why they were heading toward Utis.
Kore ran, heading toward the spot where Utis had halted.
*
‘This feels fishy.’
The range of recognition with these eyes transcends normal visual angles.
All information from 360 degrees flows directly into my brain. Even the scenery behind me, which isn’t reflected on my retina, is vividly portrayed.
If I wait just a little longer in this state, my eyes will begin to access broader, more encompassing information beyond mere visual data.
Someone’s life journey, the origin of the stone slab I’m standing on, the distribution ratio of divine power hovering in the air.
And a bizarre mana structure that didn’t exist until just now.
‘No way. Is this even mana?’
It feels closer to mana rather than magic power—strange, mutant, extra-dimensional mana unrefined by human hands.
‘I’m approaching it.’
I powered up the high-frequency blade.
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